Ian Andvaag A30 submission

by Ian Andvaag
Encroaching Dunes and Storm Brewing were taken during the four separate times I visited Douglas Provincial Park this summer. It is a nice ~4km walk out to the dunes, through scrubby aspen parkland full of scraggly junipers and cacti eking out an existence off the dry, nutrient deficient soil. Unfortunately our provincial government has thoroughly defunded our provincial parks, so the nature centre at the trail head has been permanently closed and has fallen into disrepair. So, I don’t know much about this unique ecozone. At least the trail markers remain mostly in tact, so it is still easy to find the dunes, although the trails are not used very frequently. During my visits I only ever encountered maybe 3 groups of people.
The first time I went I discovered rather dramatically at the end of my 5 hour hike that my TL-120 had not been working properly. It was getting dark and I decided to do a couple of longer exposures. I set up the camera to 1 sec and took the shot … the shutter did clicked open and shut without any delay. Uh-oh. I had always thought that the camera had a mechanical shutter, so even if the battery was dead, it would still operate normally, except for the light meter. Earlier in the day I had been shooting at around 1/60, and didn’t notice that the shutter wasn’t staying open long enough. I think I developed 5 super underexposed rolls from that excursion. Lesson learned, I’ve now carefully reread John Thurston’s excellent page on battery options, and I always carry spares now, and I change the batteries periodically.
Canola Fields and Milkhouse were taken near the farmyard where my Dad grew up. I should have been there about 1 week earlier to get optimal colour in the canola flowers. I wish I would have had an opportunity to photograph the field in the early morning or late afternoon warm light, but it was cloudy. I think Milkhouse is a bit weaker than the other slides in my submission, but I really like the colours, so I decided to include it.
I’m really enjoying shooting with the TL-120, but I still take out my Sputnik in adverse weather conditions and when it is inconvenient to lug around the heavy TL-120. Sometime in the future I’d really like to try some hypers after seeing some amazing slides from the folios. I still struggle with exposure a bit, I’d say only about 80% of my shots come out properly exposed (provided my camera has functional batteries!) Was the TL-120’s internal light meter calibrated for colour negative film, because it seems to overexpose most scenes by a bit. I use my Gossen Luna Pro F primarily. Perhaps I should consider getting a spot meter.
I really enjoyed the folio again, thanks all for your lovely images!

Orange & Mission Inn Avenue, Riverside

by Dale Walsh

A fabulous and large hotel some lucky people stayed in during my second NSA convention in Riverside, California. I stayed at the functional but non-spectacular and much less expensive Holiday Inn which was under construction at the time!  My first convention I went to before I was actually a member of the NSA also in Riverside was in 1976 I believe.  I think this was taken with twin Mamiya C330 cameras. Fuji Velvia 50

Ghost Bike for Justine Charland-St-Amour

by Paul Shay

A30 - Ghost Bike for Justine Charland-St-Amour

This Ghost Bike commemorates Justine Charland-St-Amour who was 24 when she was killed August 22nd, 2016 when hit by a truck at the intersection of d’Iberville Street and Rosemount Boulevard in Montreal. I was moved to create this series when she became the fourth cyclist struck the same week in Montreal. I included a Ghost Bike for each of 20013, 2014, 2015 and 2016  in the series, but 2017 continues to be a very deadly for cyclists in Montreal despite measures taken. Sorry about the dust mark in the right film chip.

Ghost Bike for Bernard Carignan

by Paul Shay

A30 - Ghost Bike for Bernard Carignan

This Ghost Bike commemorates Bernard Carignan who was killed on August 22nd, 2015  on St-Denis Street in Montreal when his bicycle struck the door of a parked car that had swung open in front of him. I included this series of Ghost Bikes as I bicycle to work and am cut off by a car on average once per day. Original slide taken with a tripod-mounted Heidoscop using Provia 100F exposed at 1/4 at F22.

Ghost Bike for Matilde Blais

by Paul Shay

A30 - Ghost Bike for Matilde Blais

This Ghost Bike commemorates Matilde Blais who was 33 when she was crushed by the rear wheels of a crane truck on April 28th, 2014 while riding a Bixi shared bike through the St-Denis Street underpass in Montreal. The coroner’s inquest found she was not at all at fault and that side guards on the truck may have saved her life. The inquest led to some improvements being made to try to improve the safety of cyclists at underpasses, but much remains to be done. Original slide taken with a tripod-mounted Heidoscop using Provia 100F exposed at 1 second at f25.

Ghost Bike for Suzanne Iswari

by Paul Shay

A30 - Ghost Bike for Suzanne Iswari

Suzanne Iswari was struck and killed by a bus on July 18th, 2013 while attempting to avoid a car door opened in front of her on Parc Avenue at St-Viateur Street in Montreal. Ghost Bikes are created to commemorate killed cyclists. Original slide taken with a trip-mounted Heidoscop using Provia 100F exposed at 1/30 at F22. Sorry for the blown highlights but the white bicycle in the sun against the black car in shadows is a greater dynamic range than the film can handle.

Dragon Spine Plaza Blanca New Mexico

by Geoffrey S. Waldo

DP2M0107_small2

Plaza Blanca is about one hour north of Santa Fe New Mexico by car, the last couple of miles is a dirt road. Spectacular rock formations can be found only a few hundred yards from the parking lot. I’d just started walking again after all the foot surgeries. This was taken with a paired Merrill Dp2 rig, on a sliding bar with about 8 inch stereo base. Then the image was transferred to Provia 100F by photographing a 4K screen.  (I describe the process in more detail in A28 folio notes). The developer was nearly exhausted and resulted in thick image with excessive contrast. I plan to send my film to Colorado lab in the future. There are lots of lovely digital images taken with this Foveon sensor camera (thanks to Boris Starosta for turning me on to the Merrill, he uses Merrills in his clear building series). The Foveon sensor records all RGB at each site in a ‘stack’ of sensors, so each color plane has all the full resolution, without interpolation since there is no Bayer filter.  I plan to upgrade to a 10 bit calibrated 4K screen, and eventually to an 8K screen for future digital to film experiments. I’ll also do some head-to-head tests going back to photograph the original subjects with digital and film (TL-120 and paired Mamiya 220 85 and 55 mm). I’m quite please with the Merrill sensor and lens, have the DP3 now too. Merrills are like using slower film cameras (usually want ASA at 100, tripod or good light for routine use), the slowness comes from the ‘thickness’ of the sensor, as light has to make it into the depths of the chip to provide the color information. But this lens is amazingly sharp.